South African Utility Executive to Speak at Samford May 4

Pieter Faling, executive director of Eskom, the national electricity
supply company of South Africa, will speak on "Business Leadership in the Midst of
Change" at Samford University Tuesday, May 4, at 10 a.m. in Brooks Hall Auditorium.
The public is invited.

Faling, an Eskom executive since 1976, has been a leader during the
time the country has gone from a society of apartheid repression to a national community
of shared freedom.

Eskom, the world's fourth largest utility company, supplies 60
percent of the electricity for the African continent.

Most recently, Faling created innovative customer-focused teams
resulting in a major change serving the South African electricity market. This has been
done through values-based leadership to empower both black and white employees while
moving through an Affirmative Action process.

According to Eskom, focusing on the customer rather than on
technological achievements has resulted in a 40 percent reduction in capital expenditure
and a 30 percent improvement in service reliability.

Faling is the first speaker in Samford's A. Gerow Hodges Lecture
Series. The new series is designed to bring outstanding business leaders from the U.S. and
abroad to the campus to talk and meet with Samford students.

The series honors Dr. Hodges, longtime Birmingham insurance
executive and member of the Samford Board of Trustees, which he has served as chairman.